New police vehicle shot up

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In a brazen attack in St Ann on the weekend, armed thugs opened fire on a police service vehicle which was travelling along the Tanglewood main road.

The vehicle is part of a fleet of 24 SUVs that the Government is handing over to police across the island, with each division and each area headquarter being assigned one.

One of several shots fired penetrated the windshield of the vehicle, while another penetrated the body of the vehicle near the gas tank.

According to the Head of the St Ann Police Division, Gary Francis, the incident took place early, around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday.

Francis said the police were responding to an emergency call and were heading from Bamboo towards Priory when the incident occurred.

Initial reports suggested it was a lone gunman, however, when he spoke to THE STAR yesterday, Francis said "gunmen engaged the police in a shoot-out, which resulted in the damage of the service vehicle."

Francis said 25 spent shells were later recovered from the scene.

However, he noted that no member of the team was injured in the incident and there were no reports of the gunmen being injured.